Tokyo Game Show 2009

Eugen Systems’ World War II-era real-time strategy game R.U.S.E. is, as its acronymic name suggests, all about deception and sleight of hand on the battlefield. To find out more about what sets R.U.S.E. apart from other RTS’s (besides the fact that it had a crazy sci-fi reveal trailer), X-Play’s Morgan Webb caught up with producer Samuel Jacques during Tokyo Game Show…Or did she?

In just a few weeks, Sega and Platinum Games will release Bayonetta in Japan, but we'll have to wait until January. Since development is winding down, however, I was able to speak frankly with Bayonetta producer Yusuku Hashimoto about a number of topics, including his design philosophy for these types of hardcore games, his thoughts on the possibilities offered by motion control and what interested me most: the developer's motivations behind the casual-friendly "easy automatic mode."

"The idea of putting in an 'easy automatic mode' came in once the game had really solidified and taken shape and once we had built up at least as far as what we know what we were setting out to make. Once we reached a certain level of completion, then it was like, well, 'if we were to put in a mode like this that would actually broaden the appeal and make it more accessible to the broader spectrum of players.' There wasn't really anybody on the team that was opposed to the idea; they all though it fit and was appropriate for the game."

Last night X-Play kicked off their coverage of Tokyo Game Show 2009. The three day extravaganza continues tonight and tomorrow night at 6:30 PM, but in the meantime, why don't you catch up on all the awesome Day 1 coverage X-Play had to offer?

We were expecting to be playing Red Steel 2 right about now, but Ubisoft decided the much-anticipated, MotionPlus-enhanced sword-slasher was one of many games that needed some extra development time and was moved out of 2009 and into 2010. Ubisoft was showing off more of Red Steel 2 at Tokyo Game Show 2009, however, and we sat down with creative director Jason Vandenberghe to talk about what's ahead and what the team is doing with the extra polish time.

In the next few months, Microsoft will roll out some significant additions to the Xbox Live marketplace with social networks Twitter and Facebook and a new replacement for the video store, Zune Marketplace. To get a better understanding of what these changes have in store, we met with Microsoft director of digital games Scott Austin during Tokyo Game show 2009 for a walkthrough of how these updates will change your interactions with the dashboard.

Fumito Ueda's games are loved, warts and all. Ico and Shadow of the Colossus have flaws -- Ico's shaky combat, Shadow of the Colossus' frame rate -- but most gamers will tell you such criticisms are irrelevant. Ueda himself, however, cannot think of his games like that. He's always thinking about what could be changed in his past work, what could have happened with a little more time.

The new motion controllers that Sony announced over the summer and that they showed off during E3 and Tokyo Game Show might have the codename 'Sphere,' according to a couple of developers at TGS who accidentally let the codename slip in interviews about the peripheral.

Sega's Yasuhito Baba let the name slip in an interview, and, when asked if Gran Turismo would support 'Sphere,' Polyphony Digital's Kazunori Yamauchi began talking about the motion controller. Seems like at lease a few developers out there are operating under the assumption that 'Sphere' is, in fact, what it will be called.

What do you think of that name? Personally, all it does for me is conjure up the 1998 movie, starring Dustin Hoffman and Sharon Stone, but I have a penchant for bad science fiction films of the late 20th Century.

Even though White Knight Chronicles has been available in Japan for some time, it's only finally making its way to America sometime early next year. Sony is adding a number of new features to the multiplayer side of the game, including voice chat (how was that not in the original release?!) and some Dark Cloud-inspired world building. I spoke with director Yoshiaki Kusuda about why these changes have taken so long and how Level 5 goes about developing RPGs for the PlayStation 3.

I don’t know a thing about hunting monsters (so much has changed since I retired), but I do know that Capcom’s Monster Hunter series is a gaming juggernaut in Japan, and early next year, the latest installment in the series, Monster Hunter Tri for the Wii, will be landing stateside. We spoke with Capcom producer Ryozo Tsjmoto during TGS 2009 about the upcoming monster slaying adventure title, and we have the video to prove it.

Previews

Review

Screenshots

One of the big reveals for Capcom's highly anticipated new versus fighting game, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, at Tokyo Game Show 2009 was the addition of Dead Rising's Frank West to the cast. Capcom is adding several characters to the lineup for the American release of Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, so we chatted with producer Ryota Nitsuma about how these changes will affect the gameplay and what else Capcom is hiding up its sleeves.

Ghost Trick came out of nowhere at Tokyo Game Show. The Phoenix Wright team has moved onto something new, something completely different and we're really hoping Capcom decides to bring Ghost Trick over here. While that question hangs in the air, we were able to capture some great offscreen gameplay footage of Ghost Trick in action. Check it out!

Cheats and Walkthroughs

Cheats and Walkthroughs

Review

Cheats and Walkthroughs

The Battlefield franchise is well-known for its hardcore multiplayer action. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 looks to deliver even more explosive online gameplay when it releases in March. X-Play's Morgan Webb got the opportunity to talk to DICE's Karl Magnus Troedsson about some of the new multiplayer fare you and your friends can expect to experience.

Screenshots

PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe contains all the joy, excitement and tower defense you love from the PlayStation 3 PixelJunk games, except it's much smaller and you can play while waiting in line for a bus. We talked to one of the game's creators to get the inside word on what makes it so damn awesome.

Screenshots

Cheats and Walkthroughs

I haven't played a Monkey Ball game since the first GameCube one, where my friends and I stayed up super late and almost got someone kicked out of their apartment because of a noise complaint. True...ish story. Here's an interview we did at Tokyo Game Show with developer Toshihiro Nagoshi regarding Super Monkey Ball Step & Roll -- a game that hopefully will generate quite a few more noise complaints.

Screenshots

Screenshots

What better place than Tokyo Game Show to get up to speed on a JRPG? Our TGS team got some face time with tri-Ace's Takayuki Suguro and Sega's Mitsuhiro Shimano to talk about the upcoming 360 and PS3 RPG Resonance of Fate. Find out the game's setting and cinematic approach to the gameplay.